JP6688174B2 - Cell culture vessel, automatic cell culture device, liquid container, robot hand and robot system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cell culture container, an automatic cell culture device, a liquid container, a robot hand that handles the container, and a robot system including the robot hand.

  In recent years, robots have been applied to perform work related to medicine and medicine. Therefore, an isolator in which an arm of a robot is arranged in a work area and an operator gives an operation command of the arm from the outside to perform a cell culture work or the like has been put on the market. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a consumable material and the like are loaded into and unloaded from an automatic cell culture device including an operation robot 19 via a loading / unloading unit 15. In such an isolator, in order to improve the work efficiency by the robot arm, the problem is how to efficiently supply the consumable materials to be handled by using the robot arm while maintaining the sterilization state. Becomes

  For example, various types of cells isolated from living organisms are cultured in an artificial environment that mimics the biological environment, and gene transfer is performed if necessary, and a large amount of these cells and various factors produced by the cells are introduced. In particular, it is used for treating various diseases. When performing such work with a robot arm, it is assumed that the culture solution of the cells is stored in a flask or bottle-shaped container and the opening of the container is closed with a screw cap, and then supplied into the working area of the isolator. To be done. In this case, the robot arm holds the container at a predetermined work position, holds the cap by the hand at the tip, opens the container by rotating the cap, then holds the body of the container, and is accommodated in the container. For example, the culture solution is transferred to another container such as a culture flask, a bottle or a petri dish.

  As many culture vessels used in the automatic culture apparatus for regenerative medicine, general cell culture vessels and the like are used. At the top of these caps, there are those with a manufacturer's name attached when molding the caps and the opening position indicated by an arrow, but the letters and marks are unclear. It is difficult to obtain a container having a cap shape or a clearly marked container that is suitable for use in an automatic culture device.

  The operation of the automatic culture device is mechanical designed, and when the same operation for handling the culture container as described above is repeated, the positional relationship between the cap and the container body is extremely reproducible. However, if slipping or the like occurs when the claws of the robot grip the cap, an error may occur in the rotational position of the cap, making it impossible to visually identify the screw position in the cap. Therefore, when opening and closing the cap, the relative positional relationship with the container body is recognized by a camera, sensor, etc., but the accuracy is extremely low. Actually, the clutch is used when closing the cap, excessive rotation when opening, etc. Is used, and the work further disturbs the directionality of the cap, which is a factor of increasing the wear of the cap.

  On the other hand, when opening and closing the cap, a large torque is momentarily required when opening the cap from the closed state. This is a heavy load as the gripping force of the claw in the robot hand and the rotation torque related to the hand.

Japanese Patent No. 4550101 International Publication No. WO2007 / 015770 Pamphlet

Assuming the above work mode, the following problems may occur.
(1) First, it is premised that the inside of the container containing the culture solution is in a sterilized state, and it must be supplied into the working area of the isolator without contamination by external bacteria. Before the robot arm starts the opening work in the work area, the cap is securely fastened and completely closed to prevent the work area from being contaminated by mixed bacteria. Have to make sure.

  For example, if contamination with other people's cells etc. occurs, the cultured cells cannot be used, so it is necessary to avoid leaking cells and solutions in the bottle into the working environment in the isolator. It is necessary to confirm that the cap is completely closed by the cap. Although the work performed in the sterilization environment is taken as an example here, the cap is securely fastened to prevent leakage of the liquid or the like contained in the container in general even if such work is not performed. There is a need to confirm that.

  (2) Regarding the material of the bottle-shaped container, it is assumed that a resin such as polyethylene terephthalate or polystyrene is used in consideration of easiness of production and cost reduction. On the other hand, unlike a human hand, the robot hand is usually made of metal having high rigidity. Therefore, when the robot hand grips the cap and rotates it with the body side of the container fixed, if the gripping state is incomplete and slippage occurs between the two, the resin cap surface part is scraped by the hand. There is a risk that abrasion powder will be generated. The generation of such abrasion powder also contaminates the working chamber, and therefore needs to be prevented. Depending on the structure of the cap, misalignment occurs when the robot hand rotates in both directions of opening and closing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is a liquid container capable of easily performing an opening operation by a robot hand, and a configuration suitable for performing the opening operation of the liquid container. (EN) Provided are a robot hand including the robot hand, a robot system including the robot hand, a cell culture container in which a closed state can be easily confirmed, and an automatic cell culture device using the container.

  According to the cell culture container of the first aspect, by providing the mark, it is possible to easily confirm whether or not the closed state by the cap attached to the opening of the container body in which the cell culture solution is stored is normal.

In addition, since the rotational force receiving portion provided on the cap side and the reference mark provided on the container body side are provided, the capped state by the cap can be confirmed by the relative positional relationship between the two.

According to the cell culture container of the second aspect, the protrusion provided on the outer peripheral surface of the cap can receive the rotational force applied when the opening operation is performed.
According to the cell culture container of the third aspect, the height of the protrusion is 1 mm or more.

According to the cell culture container of the fourth aspect , the protrusion has the function of reducing the positional deviation when the opening or closing operation is performed, or reducing the load when the opening operation is performed. That is, by providing the protrusion, the start position and the end position of the thread or the thread groove formed on the inner peripheral side of the cap can be visually recognized. In other words, by knowing both of them including the position of the screw in the opening on the container body side from the external appearance of one, the cap can be opened and closed only by the operation of the screw pitch. In addition, the container body side should be fixed with a cell observation surface that has a relatively wide flat surface, and the shape of the cap and protrusion should be opened by combining with the shape of the hand side when handling with a robot hand, for example. It is possible to make it easier to transmit the rotational force applied during the plugging and capping work.

According to the cell culture container of the fifth aspect , the tip position of the protrusion is arranged at a position that does not exceed the outer circumference of the container body when viewed from the cap direction in the closed state. According to this structure, the protrusion provided on the cap does not hinder the work when handling the cell culture container, and the gripping force by the nail of the hand can be reduced when handling with the robot hand, for example. Furthermore, since the operating radius that affects the rotational torque applied during the opening / closing operation by the linear expression is large, it is possible to apply a relatively strong rotational force.

According to the automatic cell culture apparatus of claim 6, the cell culture container according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is handled. Then, the control device acquires the image data of the mark captured by the image capturing unit, and determines whether the cap is in the normal closed state. That is, by confirming the mark on the cell culture container with the image, the control device can determine whether or not the cap is in the normal closed state.

According to the liquid container of the seventh aspect , in the configuration including the bottle-shaped main body and the screw cap attached to the opening of the main body, the protrusion is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the screw cap. Further, a position display section is provided in the peripheral portion of the opening section for indicating whether or not the capping position is normal based on the relative positional relationship with the protrusion.

  With this configuration, on the robot side, the positional relationship between the protruding portion of the cap and the position display unit can be grasped from the image captured by the camera or the like arranged in the robot hand before performing the cap opening operation. It can be determined whether or not is in the normal closed position. Further, when the robot hand grips the cap and starts the opening operation, for example, it can be started in a state where the claw of the hand is in contact with the protrusion of the cap. As a result, when the robot hand is rotated, slippage between the robot hand and the cap can be prevented, and the generation of abrasion powder can be suppressed.

  Further, on the robot side, how much the cap has been rotated from the initial closed state can be grasped from the positional relationship between the protrusion and the position display unit. Therefore, it is possible to obtain information on the amount of rotation required to open the cap, and the opening operation can be easily performed.

According to the liquid container of claim 8, since the plurality of position display portions are arranged so that the circumferentially divided regions around the opening can be individually identified, the relative positional relationship between the cap and the main body is It can be grasped more easily and in detail.

According to the liquid container of the ninth aspect , the protrusion is arranged at a position that does not exceed the radial dimension of the container body when viewed from the cap direction in the closed state. According to this structure, the protrusion provided on the cap does not interfere with the work when handling the cell culture container.

According to claim 1 0, wherein the robot hand, the performs the unplugging operations of the liquid container, and two or more claws, the imaging unit for recognizing by imaging the position display unit of the liquid container body With. With this, the robot side can grasp the relative positional relationship between the cap and the main body by the image pickup unit, grasp the cap with two or more claws, and perform the opening operation.

In addition, since the tip of at least one claw is provided with a recess for engaging with the projection on the cap side, the cap can be easily rotated in a state where both are engaged, and the cap and the claw It is possible to prevent the occurrence of abrasion powder by preventing slippage between the two.

According to claim 1 1, wherein the robot hand, by the two claws, opening provided for communicating between the interior and the exterior is minimized, which comprises an actuator for driving the pawl, wherein The opening can be easily sealed. Therefore, the structure suitable for improving the cleaning property can be obtained.

According to claim 1 wherein the robot hand, by providing a recess in two or more claws, it is possible to perform the engagement of the protrusion of the cap more easily.
According to claim 1 3 robot system described control apparatus, when the imaging unit provided in the robot hand to acquire data of the cap and the position display of the image of the liquid container which is captured, and the protrusion of the cap From the relative positional relationship with the position display unit, it is determined whether or not the cap is in the normal closed position. Therefore, it is possible to confirm that the material or the like contained in the liquid container is not contaminated before the opening operation of the liquid container.

According to claim 1 4 robot system according, control device, when the cap is determined to be in normal stoppered position, gripping the cap by the robot hand, the liquid container is rotated in cap opening direction by a predetermined angle Perform the opening operation. Therefore, it is possible to surely perform the opening operation while confirming the relative positional relationship between the protruding portion of the cap and the position display portion with the image data.

According to claim 1 5 robotic system according, control device, when the cap is determined that there is no normal plugging position, the cap is grasped by the robot hand, the liquid container is rotated in plugging direction by a predetermined angle Perform the capping operation. Then, the closed liquid container is disposed of. That is, if the liquid container is not properly closed, there is a possibility that the contained material or the like is contaminated. Therefore, by completely closing the liquid container to prevent leakage of the contained materials and the like, and then disposing of the liquid container, the room in which the robot arm works is contaminated. Can be avoided.

It is 1st Embodiment, (a) of a bottle which is a cell culture container is a side view, (b) is a top view. Front view of bottle Front view of bottle with cap removed Vertical front view of bottle with cap removed The figure which explains the operation which the robot hand takes out the bottle from the pass box (A) is a front view and (b) is a side view showing a state where the claw of the robot hand is holding the cap. Functional block diagram showing the overall system configuration of the robot The flowchart which shows the processing content corresponding to the operation | movement of FIG. Flowchart showing the process in which the robot hand opens the bottle Flowchart showing the process of the robot hand closing the bottle Front view showing an automatic cell culture device Plan view showing the inside of the work room Front view of the interior of the work room, broken away It is 2nd Embodiment and is a top view of the bottle in the state with the cap attached. Top view of main body with cap removed It is 3rd Embodiment and is a top view of the bottle with the cap attached. Top view of main body with cap removed It is 4th Embodiment and shows the state which the nail | claw of the robot hand hold | gripped the cap, (a) is a front view, (b) is a side view A diagram showing a model of a state in which the rotational force applied to the cap is measured when the cap is opened. The figure which shows the modification of a container main body shape (the 1) The figure which shows the modification of a container main body shape (the 2) Figure 5 equivalent

(First embodiment)
The first embodiment will be described below. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a main body 1 of a bottle 10, which is a cell culture container of the present embodiment, has a closed lower end portion 2 and a cap attachment portion 3 having a small-diameter annular shape at the upper end portions facing each other. It is in the shape of an octagonal bottle having and. Each surface forming the octagonal prism of the main body 1 is flat, and two surfaces of each surface facing each other are substantially parallel to each other. Since the bottle 10 is also used as a centrifuge tube, the closed lower end 2 has a conical shape or an octagonal pyramid shape. The main body 1 corresponds to the container main body.

  The upper end surface of the cap mounting portion 3 has an opening 4. On the outer peripheral portion of the cap mounting portion 3, a screw thread 6 for mounting the cap 5 with an inner peripheral screw is formed. That is, the cap 5 is a screw cap. Furthermore, in order to facilitate mechanical culture of the rotary culture, the outer peripheral side of the joint portion between the cap attachment part 3 and the main body 1 holds the octagonal prism main body 1 upward or sideways, and the opening 4 is slanted. A convex portion 7 is formed so as to fix the handle member and the perforated member when facing downward and holding the culture solution contained in the main body 1 for discharging by decantation.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a protrusion 8 having a height of 1 mm or more is formed on the outer periphery of the cap 5 on the lower end side in FIG. The protrusion 8 is used when the robot hand rotates the cap 5 to open or close the bottle 10, as described later. Then, on the upper surface portion from the lower end of the cap mounting portion 3 to each surface forming the octagonal column of the main body 1, the numbers "1" to "" are provided around the cap mounting portion 3 corresponding to each of the eight surfaces. 8 ”is attached. These are the position display section 9. The position display unit 9 is used for control on the robot side as described later. The protruding portion 8 corresponds to a rotational force receiving portion which is a mark, and the position display portion 9 corresponds to a reference mark.

  The material used to form the bottle 10 is not particularly limited, but a material generally used in cell culture can be used. For example, there are a resin material, an inorganic material such as glass and quartz, a metal, and the like, but it is preferable to use the resin material in consideration of easiness of manufacturing, cost reduction, and easiness of grasping a cell culture state. Then, considering the ease of production and cost reduction, and the ease of grasping the state of cell culture, polyethylene terephthalate resin or polystyrene resin, or polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinyl chloride and mixtures thereof. It is preferable to use a member selected from the group consisting of

  FIG. 11 is a front view of the automatic cell culture device. A robot arm 13 is arranged in the center of the work chamber 12 of the automatic cell culture device 11. The robot arm 13 is rotatably installed on the floor plate 14 shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 of the work room 12, and the hand 15 provided at the distal end is rotatably provided by three joint mechanisms and each joint. It is also provided so as to be rotatable in the direction of twisting about the axis in the mechanism section. That is, the robot arm 13 has a vertical 6-axis configuration having translational 3 degrees of freedom and rotational 3 degrees of freedom. Thereby, the hand 15 can take an arbitrary position and orientation within a predetermined movable range. The hand 15 is configured to be able to grip an object to be worked with two claws 15a and 15b. The robot arm 13 is surface-treated so as to have sterilization resistance and sanitary resistance.

  FIG. 12 is a plan view showing the inside of the work chamber 12. On a floor plate 14 around the robot arm 13, a centrifuge 16, a microscope 17, a work table 18 on which reagents and consumable materials for work are arranged, a pipetter 19, a waste shutter 20 and the like are arranged. As shown in FIG. 13, the discard shutter 20 opens and closes the opening of the discard box 21 disposed below the floor plate 14 in order to discard unnecessary materials and waste liquid. In addition, an incubator 22, a pass box 23, and the like are arranged on the peripheral wall portion of the work chamber 12.

  The working chamber 12 constitutes a closed space for performing medical work such as cell culture. An opening / closing door 25 having a transparent monitoring window 24 shown in FIG. 11 is attached to the front of the work chamber 12 in order to monitor the work performed by the robot arm 13 from the outside. Further, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 13, a helper unit 26 is disposed above the work chamber 12 for sterilizing the work chamber 12 and for sterilizing and supplying the outside air.

  The pass box 23 accommodates a plurality of bottles 10. The surface side of the pass box 23 facing the work chamber 12 is opened and closed by a shutter 27 driven by an actuator (not shown). The robot arm 13 takes out the bottle 10 arranged in the pass box 23 with the hand 15 when the shutter 27 is opened.

  Then, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a concave portion 28 is formed at each of the tips of the claws 15a and 15b forming the hand 15. The concave portion 28 and the projection portion 8 provided on the cap 5 are used when the bottle 10 placed in the pass box 23 is taken out by the hand 15 or grasped for performing the opening / closing operation of the bottle 10. It is provided for engagement.

  FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing the entire system configuration of the robot including the controller. In the robot system 31, the controller 32 includes a control unit 32a, an image processing unit 32b, and the like, which are configured by a microcomputer. The image processing unit 32b sets the work reference position by performing image processing on the image captured by the camera 33 arranged in the hand 15. The controller 32 corresponds to a control device.

  A camera 33 corresponding to an image capturing unit is connected to the controller 32 and captures an image of a work or the like that is a work target located at the tip of the hand 15. The data of the image captured by the camera 33 is transmitted to the controller 32, and the image processing unit 32b performs image processing for setting the work position.

  The pendant 34 includes a control unit 34a, a display unit 34b, and the like, and is connected to the controller 32 via a connection cable. The pendant 34 is also called a teaching pendant, and can be used to set an operation locus of the robot arm 13 and various parameters. In addition, the posture of the robot arm 13 can be controlled by manually operating the pendant 34. A touch panel (not shown) is provided on the display unit 34b, and a touch operation by the user can be input.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 shows an operation when the bottle 10 is taken out from the pass box 23 by the robot hand 15, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing contents corresponding to the operation of FIG. The bottle 10 is housed in a state where a part of the octagonal prism surface of the main body 1 is in contact with a part of the inner wall of the pass box 23, and the main body 1 is fixed by the pass box 23 in the housed state. Has been done.

  In the state shown in FIG. 5A, the camera 33 arranged on the hand 15 captures the image of the bottle 10 housed in the pass box 23 from the cap 5 side. When the controller 32 recognizes the position of the protrusion 8 of the cap 5 from the image data of the camera 33 (S1), the controller 32 recognizes the position and angle of the main body 1 based on the position (S2).

  Then, the controller 32 moves the hand 15 to the right in the figure with the claws 15a and 15b open, and causes the tip portions of the claws 15a and 15b to enter the inside of the pass box 23. Then, as shown in FIG. 5B, the cap 5 is gripped in a state in which the claws 15a and 15b are closed and the concave portion 28 is engaged with the protruding portion 8 (S3). FIG. 6A is a model front view showing a state in which the concave portion 28 is engaged with the protrusion portion 8, and FIG. 6B is a side view thereof.

  Next, the controller 32 determines whether the cap 5 is normally fastened to the main body 1, that is, the bottle 10 is normally closed (S4). Here, as a premise, when the work of fastening the cap 5 to the main body 1 is started, the fastening work is performed after the protrusion 8 is aligned with the initial position shown by the display unit 9 of the main body 1, for example, the display “1”. To do. Then, by rotating the cap 5 by a predetermined amount from the initial position, the end position where the protrusion 8 is located when the fastening is completed with a predetermined torque applied is, for example, the display “7” on the display unit 9. Suppose there is. The details of this work will be described later.

  Therefore, the controller 32 determines that the cap 5 is normally fastened to the main body 1 if the protrusion 8 is located at the display "7" of the display unit 9 which is the end position in step S4 (YES). . In this case, as shown in FIG. 5C, the hand 15 is moved to the left in the figure as it is, the bottle 10 is pulled out from the pass box 23 (S5), and the process ends.

  On the other hand, in step S4, if the protruding portion 8 is not located at the display "7" of the position display portion 9 but is located at the display "6" (NO), there is "looseness" in the cap 5 and it is normal. It is judged that it is not in the proper closing position, that is, it is not normally fastened (NO). In this case, the controller 32 tries to re-fasten the cap 5, and while holding the cap 5, rotates the hand 15 in the closing direction (S6). Then, in the subsequent steps S7 and S8, the same processing as in steps S1 and S2 is performed, and in step S9, the same determination as in step S4 is performed. Here, if it is determined that the cap 5 is normally fastened (YES), the process proceeds to step S5, and if it is determined that it is not normally fastened (NO), an abnormal stop process is performed (S10).

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process when the bottle 10 is opened by the robot hand 15. The opening operation is performed, for example, by moving the bottle 10 taken out from the pass box 23 to the work table 18 and fixing the main body 1 side. When the controller 32 recognizes the position of the protruding portion 8 of the cap 5 in the same manner as in step S1 (S11), the hand 15 approaches the cap 5 with the claws 15a and 15b opened as in FIG.

  Then, the cap 5 is gripped with the claws 15a and 15b closed and the concave portion 28 engaged with the protrusion 8 (S12). Here, in order to perform the opening operation, the gripping force applied to the cap 5 by closing the claws 15a and 15b may be substantially zero. Next, here, on the premise that the protruding portion 8 is at the above-mentioned end position, the controller 32 rotates the gripped cap 5 by a predetermined amount in the direction of opening the cap 5 to open the cap 5, and removes the cap 5 (S13).

  Further, when performing the opening operation as described above, the rotational force applied to the cap 5 by the hand 15 may be 0.7 Nm or more and 1.5 Nm or less. FIG. 19 shows a model of a state in which the rotational force required when the cap 5 in the normally closed state is opened is measured. With the bottle 10 laid sideways, a measuring jig is interposed between the load cell installed on a desk or the like and the protrusion 8. In this state, the main body 1 was rotated in the direction of opening the cap, and the rotational force required to open the cap was measured with a load meter. The load varies within the range of 30N to 60N depending on the strength of the cap 5 when the cap 5 is tightened when the cap is closed. In this case, the rotational force required for opening the cap was in the range of 0.7 Nm to 1.5 Nm.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process when the bottle 15 is closed with the hand 15. Steps S21 to S23 are the same as steps S1 to S3, but in this case, the cap 5 is removed from the main body 1. Therefore, when the controller 32 grips the cap 5 in step S23, the controller 32 approaches the cap mounting portion 3 of the main body 1. Subsequently, the cap 5 is inserted into the cap mounting portion 3 of the main body 1 so that the protruding portion 8 is located at the specific position of the main body 1, that is, the display "1" which is the initial position shown by the position display portion 9 described above. (S24). Then, the cap 5 is rotated by a predetermined angle in the fastening direction and the closing direction (S25).

  Then, similarly to steps S1 and S2, when the position of the protruding portion 8 and the arrangement angle of the main body 1 are recognized, it is determined whether or not the cap 5 is normally fastened similarly to step S4 (S28). If it is determined that the fastening has been completed normally (YES), the process ends. On the other hand, if it is determined that the cap 5 is not normally fastened (NO), the cap 5 is gripped by the claws 15a and 15b (S29). An attempt is made to re-engage the cap 5 and retry (S30). The retry performed in step S30 corresponds to the processing in steps S6 to S10 shown in FIG.

  The bottle 10 may be discarded in the discard box 21 after the cap 5 is fastened again. That is, if the bottle 10 is not properly closed, the contained material and the like may be contaminated. Therefore, the bottle 10 is completely closed to prevent leakage of the contained material and the like. It is disposed of above to prevent the inside of the work chamber 12 from being contaminated.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, in the bottle 10 including the main body 1 and the cap 5 attached to the cap attaching portion 3 of the main body 1, the protruding portion 8 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the cap 5. Further, a position display portion 9 is provided around the cap mounting portion 3 to indicate whether or not the cap 5 is in the normal closing position based on the relative positional relationship with the protruding portion 8. On the other hand, the robot hand 15 is provided with two claws 15a and 15b and a camera 33 for imaging and recognizing the position display section 9 of the main body 1, and the claws 15a and 15b are provided with concave portions 28, respectively. .

  With this configuration, on the robot side, the controller 32 determines the position of the protrusion 8 of the cap 5 and the position display unit 9 from the image captured by the camera 33 arranged on the robot hand 15 before performing the cap opening operation. By grasping the relationship, it can be determined whether or not the cap 5 is in the normal closing position.

  Then, on the robot side, how much the cap 5 is rotated from the initial closed position can be visually and visually ascertained from the positional relationship between the protrusion 8 and the position display unit 9. Therefore, information on the amount of rotation of the cap 5 necessary to open the cap can be supplementarily obtained, and the cap 10 can be easily opened. In this case, a plurality of position display portions 9 are provided so as to individually identify the areas in which the periphery of the cap attachment portion 3 is equally divided in the circumferential direction, and are displayed by attaching serial numbers to them. The relative positional relationship with the main body 1 can be grasped more easily and in detail.

  Further, the cap 5 can be easily rotated in a state where the concave portion 28 formed in the claws 15a and 15b is engaged with the projecting portion 8 and slippage occurs between the cap 5 and the claws 15a and 15b. It can be prevented. In addition, since the cap 5 is provided with the protruding portion 8, the gripping force applied to the cap 5 when the claws 15a and 15b are closed for performing the opening operation is substantially zero. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the cap 5 from being scraped by the highly rigid claws 15a and 15b, and it is possible to reliably suppress generation of abrasion powder.

  Further, by providing the recesses 28 on the claws 15a and 15b in this way, the engagement with the protrusions 8 can be performed more easily. In addition, the hand 15 having only the two claws 15a and 15b has as few openings as possible for communicating between the inside and the outside having an actuator for driving them, and sealing the openings. Can also be done easily. Therefore, when applied to the work performed in the sterilized work chamber 12, the structure suitable for improving the cleaning performance of the hand 15 can be obtained.

  Then, according to the robot system 31 of the present embodiment, when the controller 32 acquires the data of the image of the cap of the bottle 10 and the image of the position display unit 9 captured by the camera 33 provided in the hand 15, the controller 32 of the cap 5 is displayed. From the relative positional relationship between the protrusion 8 and the position display unit 9, it is determined whether or not the cap 5 is in the normal closing position. Therefore, it is possible to confirm that the materials and the like contained in the bottle 10 are not contaminated before the opening operation of the bottle 10.

  When the controller 32 determines that the cap 5 is at the normal capping position, the controller grips the cap 5 with the hand 15 and rotates the cap 5 in the capping direction by a predetermined angle to open the bottle 10. Therefore, it is possible to surely perform the opening operation while confirming the relative positional relationship between the protruding portion 8 and the position display portion 9 with the image data.

  In addition, when the controller 32 determines that the cap 5 is not in the normal capping position 5, the hand 15 holds the cap 5 and rotates the cap 5 in the capping direction by a predetermined angle to cap the bottle 10. Then, the closed bottle 10 is discarded. As a result, it is possible to prevent leakage of materials and the like contained in the bottle 10 and prevent contamination of the inside of the working chamber 12.

(Second and third embodiments)
Hereinafter, the same parts as those in the first embodiment will be designated by the same reference numerals, the description thereof will be omitted, and different parts will be described. The second and third embodiments show variations of the position display section provided on the body side of the bottle. The bottle 41 of the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 14 and 15 is provided with a columnar main body 42, and the position display portion 43 is displayed by a straight line passing through the center of the main body 42. One is divided into 43a and the other is 43b.

  Further, the bottle 51 of the third embodiment shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 includes a columnar main body 52 like the bottle 41, and the position display portion 53 is arranged on a straight line passing through the center of the main body 52. It is displayed with a circle. The display on one side sandwiching the bottle mounting portion 3 is 53a, and the display on the other side is 53b. Even when the position display portions 43 and 53 are provided as in the second and third embodiments, the relative positional relationship with the protruding portion 8 of the cap 5 can be grasped.

(Fourth Embodiment)
In the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 18, the robot hand 61 includes two claws 61a and 61b similar to the hand 15, but these claws 61a and 61b are the same as in the first embodiment. The recess 28 is not formed. Even with such a shape, when the cap 5 is gripped, for example, the side portion of the claw 61a is rotated in a state of being brought into contact with the protrusion 8 of the cap 5 to cause a slip between the two. It can be rotated without.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above or illustrated in the drawings, and the following modifications or expansions are possible.
For example, in the first embodiment, the recess 28 may be provided only on one of the claws.
The height dimension of the protrusion 8 may be appropriately changed according to the individual design.
The robot hand may have three or more nails.
The shape of the bottle body is not limited to the octagonal prism, but may be any other polygonal prism shape. For example, a quadrangular prism shape as shown in FIG. 20 or a flask shape as shown in FIG. 21 may be used. For example, the operation when taking out a bottle having a flask-shaped main body from the pass box is as shown in FIG.
The working chamber does not necessarily have to be sterile.

In the drawings, 1 is a main body, 2 is a lower end portion, 3 is a cap mounting portion, 4 is an opening, 5 is a cap, 6 is a screw thread, 8 is a protruding portion, 9 is a position display portion, 10 is a bottle, and 13 is a robot arm. , 15 is a robot hand, 15a and 15b are claws, 28 is a recess, 31 is a robot system, 32 is a controller, and 33 is a camera.

Claims (15)

A container body in which the cell culture medium is stored,
A cap attached to the opening of the container body,
A mark for confirming whether the cap closed state by the cap is normal ,
As the mark, a rotational force receiving portion provided on the cap side for receiving a rotational force applied when the opening operation is performed,
Cell culture vessel Ru and a reference mark provided on the container body side. Said rotating force receiving portion, a protruding portion provided on the outer peripheral surface cell culture vessel according to claim 1, wherein said cap. The cell culture container according to claim 2 , wherein the height of the protrusion is 1 mm or more. The cell culture container according to claim 2 or 3 , wherein the protrusion has a function of reducing a positional displacement when performing the opening or closing operation, or reducing a load when the opening or closing operation is performed. The cell culture container according to any one of claims 2 to 4 , wherein a tip position of the protrusion is arranged at a position that does not exceed the outer circumference of the container body when viewed from the cap direction in a closed state. Using the cell culture container according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
An imaging unit that outputs the data of the captured image,
An automatic cell culture device comprising: a control device that acquires image data of the mark captured by the image capturing unit and determines whether the cap is in a normally closed state. A liquid container provided with a container-shaped main body and a screw cap attached to the opening of the main body, and at least the cap opening operation is assumed to be performed by a robot hand in a working chamber,
A protrusion provided on the outer periphery of the cap,
A liquid container provided in a peripheral portion of the opening portion, and a position display portion that indicates whether or not the cap is in a normal closed position based on a relative positional relationship with the protrusion portion. The liquid container according to claim 7 , wherein a plurality of the position display parts are arranged so that a region obtained by dividing the periphery of the opening in the circumferential direction can be individually identified. The end position of the projecting portion, when viewed from the cap direction plugging condition, the liquid container according to claim 7 or 8, wherein is arranged at a position not exceeding the outer periphery of the body. A robot hand for opening the liquid container according to any one of claims 7 to 9 ,
Two or more nails,
An image pickup unit for picking up and recognizing the position display unit ,
A robot hand provided with a concave portion provided at the tip of at least one claw for engaging with the protrusion . Claim 1 0, wherein the robot hand said pawl is two. Claim 1 1, wherein the robot hand in which the recess is provided in the claws of two or more. A robot arm having a robot hand according to any one of claims 1 0 to 1 2,
It consists of a control device that controls this robot arm,
When the control device acquires the data of the image of the cap of the liquid container and the position display part imaged by the imaging part provided in the robot hand, the control device compares the projection part of the cap with the position display part. A robot system for determining whether or not the cap is in a normal closing position based on a positional relationship. When the control device determines that the cap is in the normal capping position, the robot hand grips the cap and rotates the robot hand in the capping direction by a predetermined angle to uncap the liquid container. robotic system of claim 1 3, wherein performing the operation. When the control device determines that the cap is not in the normal capping position, the robot hand grips the cap and rotates the robot hand in the capping direction by a predetermined angle to perform the capping operation of the liquid container. after claim 1 3 or 1 4 robot system according performing disposal of plugging liquid container.

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